Suddenly the Eagles are in a little bit of trouble. After having a nice buffer in the NFC for most of the season, they find themselves just 1 game ahead of the Cowboys, Lions, and Niners. And they are coming off their worst game in the past two seasons. The 49ers didn’t just beat them, they trounced them. 42-19, with 6 straight drives ending in a TD to close out the game. And now they have to head out to Dallas to play the Cowboys.

The last time these two teams faced each other, the Eagles escaped with a win. It came down to multiple Red Zone stops, including one that was less than an inch from being a TD. But they got away with a win. In Dallas, it feels unlikely luck bounced their way though. And coming off their worst game of the year, they are facing serious questions. Is this secondary capable of getting stops? Can the linebacker corps tackle? Getting Zach Cunningham back, and adding Shaq Leonard to the fold should help. But it still doesn’t leave you brimming in confidence.

If the Eagles do lose, they can still win the division just by winning out. But it feels like they need a win more just to remind us, and themselves, they are a good team. And a loss would officially kill all the room for error they had created for themselves.

Getting a win won’t be easy though. It may kill us to admit, but this Cowboys team has been good. But not unbeatable. The Seahawks came close to beating them in Dallas last week. The Eagles beat them. They may be road underdogs, but there is a path to victory here. But to do it, you need to be able to contend with a few very good players.

Here are 5 Cowboys players who could give the Eagles trouble on Sunday:

• Cee Dee Lamb

  Cee Dee Lamb has been on an absolute tear. And that includes when they played the Eagles. The last time these two teams met Lamb caught 11 passes for 191 yards. He picked the Eagles apart out of the slot. They didn’t have Bradley Roby then. But having Roby didn’t stop the 49ers from putting up big numbers on this defense. Shutting Lamb down is an unrealistic goal. But can they hold him under 100 like they did with Stefon Diggs and Travis Kelce? The goal needs to be just slow him down. Don’t let him have his way all game long like he did in the last game.

• Micah Parsons

  If Lamb is the Cowboys game wrecker on Offense, Parsons is that guy on defense. The Eagles have mostly been good at shutting him down, but he did finish with 1.5 sacks in their last game. Like with Lamb, the goal isn’t to shut him down completely. Just prevent him from wrecking your game plan on offense. That could mean running the ball toward him to keep him from getting going in the pass rush. It could mean doing more slants and quick passes.

• Daron Bland

  Bland has had a historic season filling in for Trevon Diggs. His 5 pick 6s are a new NFl Record. Bland can be an absolute game changer. But we saw against the Seahawks he can be picked on a bit too. DK Metcalf was burning him a bit. He did make some good plays closer to the end of the game to help the Cowboys win, so it’s not a shot at him or to say he is overrated. But you can beat him in coverage with a good WR. And the Eagles have 2 very good WRs.

• Tony Pollard

  It looked like Tony Pollard was breaking out of his slump on the other side of the loss to the Eagles. He had multiple games where he averaged over 5 yards per carry. Then he got just 68 yards on 20 carries against the Seahawks. He got into the end zone, but 3.4 yards per carry is not great production. Still, Pollard has shown at times he can be a top RB. And while the Eagles had looked great for most of the season, they got burned by both Chirstian McCaffrey and Isiah Pacheco in their last 3 games. The Eagles Run D need to prove themselves again this week.

• Dak Prescott

  We make fun of Dak for choking in big moments, and he still has to prove he can step up when it matters. But Dak has perhaps the best case for MVP to this point in the season. His season started a little slow, but in the past several weeks no QB has been throwing the ball better. Dak is playing the best football of his career.

  It is now 3 straight games where the Eagles pass rush struggled to get the QB down. That needs to end this week. Because if they give Dak time, he will rip this secondary apart with how he has been playing.

• Watch Andrew Salciunas live on the 97.5 The Fanatic YouTube page on Weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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